Harbin China

Harbin (in simplified Chinese 哈爾濱) is the capital of Heilongjiang Province in China, which is also a sub-provincial city located in the center of north-eastern part of Asia. It is also an important hub for connection between Europe and Asia. Harbin is located in the northern part of Northeast China Plain, the southern part of Heilongjiang Province. It is the political, economic, cultural, technological and transportation center of Heilongjiang Province.

Harbin Confucian Temple (in simplified Chinese哈尔滨文庙) is the largest of Confucian temple in northeastern part of China. It is the temple set up to worship the great ancient Chinese statesman, thinker and educator, as well as the founder of the Confucian school of thought, Confucius.

Do you know Confucius? Confucius is one of the most important and most influential thinkers in Chinese history. He belonged to the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. There were a lot of small countries in China at that time, and there were a lot of wars between countries. At that time, in order to gain more land, different lords would use different methods to kill others, and to conquer other lords’ land. However, no one seemed discover that Chinese people at that time had become very immoral. Fortunately, Confucius discovered the problem of Chinese people. He proposed a lot of ideas to convince people that money, or other materials, are just minor things. He thought that people’s spirits and moral standards are the most important. Therefore, he traveled to different countries to talk to different lords in order to persuade them to give up the military conflicts.

Harbin Ice World (in simplified Chinese哈尔滨冰雪大世界) was founded in 1999 by the Harbin municipal government in order to meet the celebrations of the twentieth century. The Ice World makes use of the greatest resources in Harbin, ice, to create a lot of interesting and beautiful ice products.

As you might have known, Harbin is very famous for its icy weather. Every year, millions of people come to Harbin to play ice-skiing, to visit parks with ice products, etc. Ice has become one of the most important resources for Harbin to attract people to visit the city. Therefore, the government decided to create the Harbin Ice World in order to attract people to visit. Of course, as mentioned above, it is one of the projects to celebrate the arrival of twentieth century. However, an ice world project is chosen but not a forest one. This shows that ice is really important to tourism in Harbin.

Songhua River Highway Bridge (in simplified Chinese松花江公路大桥) started its construction in May 10, 1983, and it was finished in August 30, 1986. The construction of Songhua River Highway Bridge lasted for about three years and four months. From this, you could already see that the construction work is really large and there are a lot of items requiring detailed planning.

In fact, the construction of Songhua River Highway Bridge is really great. The design of the bridge is of very high standard, and advanced technology had been applied. Therefore, it is more than just a normal bridge. Every year, there would be people visiting this bridge for the beautiful view of the river on the bridge. Thus, it can be said as a quite famous tourist attraction in Harbin.

Ah Town (in simplified Chinese 阿城) is located in Harbin City in Heilongjiang Province. The topography of this Town is quite typical. There are mountains, streams, and farming lands. The eastern part of this Town is quite green as there are a lot of trees. On the other hand, the western part of this Town is quite flat, and there would only be some plains. In Heilongjiang Province, Ah Town is town of the highest level of urbanization.

The great Ah Town has been awarded with the national satellite cities, comprehensive city of urban environment nationwide, the national city with comprehensive, advanced management of social security, one of the hundred cities of science and technology strength, the National culturally advanced counties  in China, excellent tourism city, county-level historical and cultural city, advanced model of provincial city civilization, etc. All these awards mark the success of Ah Town.

Site for Evidence of Japanese Unit 731 (in simplified Chinese 731部队罪证遗址) is one of the most important remains of Sino-Japanese war in China. More than 60 years ago, the Japanese militarism committed in China, and started the most brutal incident in human history, as well as the cruelest crimes which the Japanese now still want to deny. In 1933, when the Japanese soldiers invaded the northeast China, they set up an “Institute of bacteria” in Yam Pui River County.  Although the Japanese armed force tried to declare to the public that it was just a Water Supply Department, the fact was that 3000 soldiers stationed there to produce some bio-weapons using different kinds of bacteria.

Central Avenue (in simplified Chinese 中央大街) was built in 1898. At the beginning, it was called the “Street of China”. In 1925, the authority decided to rename the street to the “Central Avenue”, which later developed into the most prosperous commercial street in Harbin City. The street runs from the north at the Songhua River Flood Control Monument, and ends at the Latitude Street at the south.

In the street, there are 71 buildings of European style. These buildings make a collection of architectural styles including Renaissance, Baroque, eclectic and modern. There are 13 buildings which are under the protection of the government. In China or even in Asia, it is really quite rare because you could hardly find a street in which there are so many old European buildings. Therefore, it is really a quite popular street in Harbin. In fact, it is also one of the largest and longest streets in Asia nowadays.

Sun Island (in simplified Chinese 太阳岛) is a famous summer resort in China, as well as in Asia. It is located at the north shore of the Songhua River, and it is opposite to Stalin Park. In Harbin, it is actually a bright pearl, and it is the glory and pride of Harbin people. In the early eighties, a famous singer in China once sang the song to praise the great view of the Sun Island. Since then, Sun Island became more famous to people.

The area of Sun Island was originally a villa of the Russian people. After they left, people decided to build the resort basing on the original constructions of the villa. Sun Island has abnormally beautiful natural scenery. When people visit this Island, they would be amazed and they would all wonder how people could create such a wonderland.

Tian Hengshan Scenic Area (in simplified Chinese天恒山风景旅游区) is located at the southern part of the territory of the Songhua River. The western part of this Area is facing the John River, and the southern part is near two good national highways. Therefore, transportation to this area is quite convenient and you would be able to see two pictures of Harbin, the busy, urban one and the relaxing, natural one. In Tian Hengshan, there are a lot of different kinds of plants, and there are about 20 species of trees, making the area nearly 100% covered by green plants. Therefore, this mountain is surely one of the most important ecological tourist spots in Harbin.

Yabuli Ski Resort (in simplified Chinese 亚布力滑雪旅游度假区) is located in the territory of Shun Chi Town of Harbin in Heilongjiang Province, which is at about 195 kilometers from the east of Harbin. Since there are quite a lot of mountains, the climate of this resort belongs to the continental monsoon one, and there are distinct 4 seasons with great variation of temperature.

In Russian, “Yabuli” has the meaning of “fruit garden”. During the Qing dynasty, it was one of the palces for the Qing nobility to hunt. In the snow mountain of Yabuli, there is good quality of snow with moderate hardness, which gives the largest and the best ski conditions in the nearby regions. Therefore, it is one of the holy areas for ski-lovers.